Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) and several groups yesterday urged the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus to stop blocking the review of a draft amendment to the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法) that would require food suppliers to provide clear labeling of the sources of reconstructed meat and other packaged products.
Tien said that on Oct. 6 she submitted a draft amendment to Article 25 of the act to require raw material suppliers and distributors to clearly label food sources and production systems.
Restructured meat has become controversial after it was revealed that one supplier, Shusen Corp (樹森), reportedly used animal-feed-grade ingredients bought from Ting Hsin International Group (頂新國際集團) as an adhesive in the manufacture of its “affordable standard steak,” a restructured meat product.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
A Taipei City Government Department of Health probe found that 30 restaurants or food chains in the city have used Shusen’s restructured meat in their products.
However, the KMT caucus on Friday last week voted against a review of the amendment after Tien delivered it to the legislature that day, thereby blocking the proposed amendment, she said.
Shortly after the KMT caucus blocked the draft, its members held a news conference to highlight the issue of unlabeled reconstructed meat, Tien said.
“Are they willing to allow partisan politics to cloud their judgement at the cost of ignoring food safety issues? I would like to ask KMT legislators to stop blocking the proposed amendment,” she said, adding the Executive Yuan has ordered suppliers to label their sources of reconstructed meat, but no penalties are imposed on violators because the law does not stipulate penalties.
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